After enduring some entrepreneurial growing pains over the past two years, Frinj Coffee is back and preparing to dazzle the world.
The Goleta-based pioneer of growing coffee in California is taking part in the Dubai Coffee Auction this month, just one of 17 producers from around the world invited to the showcase and sell their beans. This will be the first time that California-grown coffee has ever competed at an international auction.
“Maybe this will be our Bottle Shock moment!” said Frinj founder Jay Ruskey, referring to the film about the Judgement of Paris of 1976, in which California wines beat out the French, validating the Golden State’s quality. “This is a watershed moment for California agriculture and for specialty coffee.”
The auction is on January 18 and 19, when Frinj will put up a 20-kilogram sack of Traditional Washed Geisha from Ruskey’s Condor Ridge Ranch on the west end of Goleta, where he planted his first trees back in 2002. That will be evaluated by top international buyers and then auctioned off alongside estates like Panama’s Hacienda La Esmeralda, which recently sold at a record-breaking $30,204 per kilogram…